About 6 months ago I woke up with a strong aching pain in my knuckles, this resolved after a minute or two stretching my fingers, but continued to occur every morning. It was bearable, until now...

Three weeks ago I got some kind of infection which was a bit like flu. It made all my joints ache and gave me a very sore throat, itchy inner ears (inside my head, running up inside my throat, if that makes sense). When I swallowed it hurt.

The other joints stopped hurting, but the throat pain remains, as do the aching fingers: every morning my hands feel 'fat' - it's like the skin on the is too tight and all of the joins on my fingers ache and readily pop and crack. No amount of stretching relieves the pain.

I have been on 80mg of Oxycontin, twice a day for about 6 months now; the knuckle pain started about 2 months after starting Oxy, so I assumed it was a side effect, but I have since changed to MST and the Fentanyl, but the pain remains (I have used Fent without issue for a long time before switching to Oxy).

I do not have join pain anywhere else, just my hands. It is worse on the morning, but does flare up during the day on occasion.

I take Oxy for pain caused my two damaged disks (L3, L4) which press on my sciatic nerve.

The pain in my hands in not stopped my ANY pain killer; I have tried ibuprofen, paracetamol, and naproxen to no avail.

Has anyone got any idea what is happening here? My throat continues to hurt (it's been three weeks) and my hands re driving me to distraction, the pain is getting too bad to bare.